Making your Summer travels easier

Some things we’ve learned from our 6+ years traveling in Europe

Hello ~ I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-Minute Vacation for June 4th. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.

Here’s the previous 5-Minute Vacation if you missed it.

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What fabulous place are you visiting this summer?

Summer travel season is here and I thought sharing a few things we’ve learned might make your travels easier.

Deciding where to go is the fun part of travel planning. After that decision is made, the work begins: How are we going to get there? Where will we stay? What will we do? What should we pack? And just as importantly, what shouldn’t we pack?

Based on our travels in Europe, I’ve put together some tools and lessons we’ve learned. While far from comprehensive, hopefully, there will be something here that makes your trip planning a little easier. We’re going to talk about:

• the online resources we use for planning

• planes, trains and automobiles

• Airbnb vs. hotels

• the different kinds of tours

• tour guides

• Trip Lists, a.k.a. don’t forget anything

• smartphones, not flip phones

• money

• laundry

Planning: Online resources

We primarily use these websites to plan our trips:

• Google and wikipedia.org for general information

• To book a flight, we begin with Google Flights because it allows us to compare most flights from most carriers (some discount airlines, like RyanAir, EasyJet and WizzAir don’t always show up here). After finding a flight, we try to book it at the airline’s website because the airline’s website doesn’t charge the fees aggregators do; they have fewer up-sell steps to go through; and the airline’s website is more transparent about baggage fees (which can be a fair chunk of change).

• Viator.com and GetYourGuide.com to book tours.

• Booking.com to book our accommodations

Getting there: Planes, trains and automobiles

Once we’ve got everything booked, we need to get there.

As uncomfortable and annoying as air travel is these days, airplanes are sometimes still the fastest (and perhaps only) way to get to your destination. I’m afraid the only advice I can give is:

• get to the airport a little early;

• bring a lot of patience; and

• remember to put any liquids in your carry-on into a one-quart Ziploc bag. This can include makeup and sunscreen (after twenty years, I’m still surprised at how many people don’t know to do this).

If we’re traveling for six hours or less, we try to go by train because trains can be a delight. You don’t have to partially undress to get through a security checkpoint, the seats are more comfortable than airplane seats and I find the views en route more interesting.

Book online and reserve your seats, if possible. Brings snacks or a meal because the food options at the railway station are usually takeaway sandwiches or pizza if there’s anything at all.

Sometimes the trains just don’t go where we want to go or going by train may require two or more transfers (we’ve learned the hard way that multiple transfers are a recipe for missing a train). In those cases, we drive.

We’ve rented cars in France, Italy and Iceland. The process is uncomplicated, if a bit tedious, provided you have a valid driver’s license and a credit card.

Review your driver’s insurance policy to see what protections, if any, it affords a car you rent.

Driving in Europe outside of the big cities is straightforward. The traffic signs, while different from American signs, are easy to understand. The speed limits are usually slower than in the U.S. It’s important to know that speed cameras are widely used, so unless you’re careful about observing the speed limits several months after you get home you might receive an unwanted souvenir of your trip in the form of a speeding ticket.

Also, there are traffic circles. Sometimes a lot of traffic circles. I find traffic circles fun but you do need to know the (simple) rules.

Driving in a big city, however, is a different experience.

Big cities always have a lot of traffic. Sometimes, like in Italy, swarms of Vespas, their little engines buzzing like mad hornets, appear and then disappear in a flash. Very unnerving. In historic city centers, the roads are narrow, if they are open at all. If they are open to general traffic and not just taxis, they are frequently one-way, usually in the direction you don’t want to go. We decided long ago to avoid driving in historic centers if at all possible. We get a hotel/short-term rental just outside the historic center and then either walk in or take public transit.

When driving, our best friend is Waze. Waze is “a community-driven navigation app that helps millions of users get to where they're going through real-time road alerts and an up-to-the-moment map.” It’s awesome. It has saved our bacon many times. To use it, you’ll have to have a smartphone that has data in the country you’re visiting or ask for a GPS to be included in your rental car.

Where to stay: short-term rentals vs. hotels

The two kinds of accommodations we use are hotels and short-term rentals (Airbnb, etc.). In addition to price and availability, we also consider quality, the check-in experience, breakfast and access to local help.

Hotels are very similar from city to city and their quality (comfort, cleanliness, etc.) is usually as consistent. Short-term rentals can give you a more local experience but the quality varies.

Another difference is the check-in experience. At a hotel, there’s always someone at the front desk so check-in is easy, regardless of the time of night you arrive. At short-term rentals, the check-in experience, which usually involves finding a lock box with a key inside, varies widely.

And then there’s breakfast. Hotels often provide breakfast (usually at an extra charge) while short-term rentals generally aren’t stocked with food, coffee or tea. Therefore, with a short-term rental be prepared to shop for food as soon as you get there. Just don’t arrive after the stores close (8 pm in many locales).

Another benefit of hotels is that if you need medical help, the staff will be able to help. To be fair to short-term rental properties, recently we’ve stayed at several that had a nearby concierge or a 24-hour texting service.

What to do: the different kinds of tours and tour guides

When you get to where you’re going, the simplest option is to just do your own thing. This is cheaper and offers the most flexibility with your time but unless you do a prodigious amount of research, you’ll miss something fun.

We prefer to take guided tours with local tour guides. It’s always fun to talk with the guides about what it’s like to live there, what their parents and grandparents experienced, and what they think the future may hold.

We book most of our tours through Viator or GetYour Guide. The tours are usually two or three hours long. We find that’s the perfect amount of time: enough time to see the highlights of a place but a small enough amount of time that it doesn’t take up the whole day.

Speaking of seeing the highlights of a place ~ for a big city (like Rome or Paris), we like to take a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour. They’re usually only a couple of hours long and it’s an easy way to get a good overview of a place.

For some trips, it’s great to have a fixer. For a photo safari in Tuscany, we hired a fixer to drive us around (it was a bonus that in every city he knew a good restaurant or two). Since he was Italian, we learned a lot about living in Italy. For example: swing dancing is a big thing there.

It will come as no surprise when I tell you that I love going to art museums. Sometimes we return to a city two or three times just to go back to the museums (Amsterdam, I’m looking at you!). Even though I have a decent knowledge of Western art history, I’ve enjoyed museums much more when we’ve hired a guide because a knowledgeable guide can tell a broader and deeper story about the art and the artists.

I would specifically recommend hiring a guide or joining a small group tour when visiting a museum with an overwhelming collection (like the Louvre, the Prado, the Vatican, etc.). The guides will be sure to show you the highlights and probably a few lesser-known gems that you might’ve overlooked.

Sometimes it just makes sense to take a package tour, such as when going on a safari in Africa.

Other times, it might make sense to go on a self-guided tour, as we did in Iceland. The tour company made all the arrangements so all we had to do was pick up the car at the airport and follow their good driving directions.

What to bring: Trip Lists, smartphones, money and more

Planning a trip can be stressful. One way we reduce that stress is to use a Trip List.

A Trip List is a list of everything we might want to take plus a list of any task we want to do before leaving the house. Our list currently has 90 items and 13 tasks on it (like starting the dishwasher, taking out the trash, etc.) but those numbers ebb and flow because we revise the list as needed. We don’t bring all the items on every trip (swimsuits, for example) but we always do all the tasks. We’ve learned the hard way that if we ignore the Trip List, we will regret it.

Another item that can make the trip easier is a smartphone.

In addition to Waze, a smartphone will allow you to read QR codes, buy tickets, use Skype, text your guide when they’re running late, etc. They’re also great for taking snapshots.

Do know your cell phone password.

Check your cell phone plan for roaming charges and if your plan allows phone calls while overseas. If it doesn’t, you can turn off cellular data and connect only over wifi. It’s not as convenient but it could save you a lot of money.

Speaking of connecting over wifi ~

We use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on all our devices. A VPN  creates an encrypted connection when you’re using wifi to help prevent other people from eavesdropping on your internet traffic. It also allows you to geo-spoof your location so you can stream videos just like you were back home.

Also, you can call 800 numbers (like your bank) on wifi using the Skype app on your smartphone (however, you’ll need to turn your VPN off). This could be useful if you are pickpocketed (sadly, it happens).

And speaking of money ~

A credit card is generally more convenient to use than cash. At least in Europe. But it’s still good to have some cash for small purchases and some coins for paying to use a public toilet (in Germany, for example).

The days of going to the bank to get foreign currency or American Express checks for a trip are long since over. Today, the easiest way to get local currency is from an ATM when you arrive in the country. There are usually ATMs at the airport so there’s no need to use the money exchanges.

Our bank reimburses up to $15/month in foreign transaction fees if we use our debit card to get cash at an ATM. If we use a credit card to get cash, there’s always a service fee that our bank won’t reimburse. Sometimes there isn’t a choice, though. Check with your bank before traveling to learn about their policies and fees.

Do know the PIN codes for your credit cards.

What not to bring: Too many clothes (will you need to do laundry?)

If you’re going to be traveling for two or three weeks (or longer), consider whether you can bring enough clean clothes or whether you’ll need to do laundry. For our 2021 trip to Italy, we planned our itinerary so that our need for laundry would coincide with our stay in Venice. We rented an apartment specifically to be able to do laundry.

This certainly isn’t a comprehensive guide but I hope there’s something here that’s useful for you. Questions? Just ask them in the comments and I’ll answer as best I can.

Until next time, safe travels.

Tschüss!